Two Deadly Viruses at CU: A 102-Year Difference
In 1918 a flu emerged on CU’s campus. Certain protocols that were used then were used over a hundred years later.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented time for the world these past two years, and it would seem to be the same for the people of Boulder County and the students, faculty, and staff of the 鶹Ƶ. However, people may be shocked to learn that parts of the 145-year-old campus experienced similar events just over 100 years ago.
The 1918 Influenza first found its way to Colorado on Sept. 19, 1918, according to CU archivist Michael Dombrowski. Though commonly mistaken for the more well known influenza, the 1918 Flu was a more deadly strain that spread through the United States via many of the American military bases.
“The packed military hospitals, barracks, and troop concentrations were the perfect vectors for the various strains of the flu to flourish and take hold,” Dombrowski said.
Members of the Students’ Army Training Corps (SATC) at the University of Colorado knew firsthand what the spread was like. The first documented case of the 1918 Flu on campus was a student in CU’s SATC who traveled from Montana. After that, it was only a matter of time before a temporary hospital in the Sigma Chi fraternity housed more than 30 infected students.
Several other buildings on and around the current CU campus functioned as hospitals, including the Alpha Tau Omega house and the Armory. As the virus spread through the campus and further into Boulder county, isolation tents began appearing around campus as well.
The University, as well as buildings around the county, closed as the Boulder quarantine began on Oct. 7 of the same year. Dombrowski noted that Oct. 10 was the peak of the epidemic in Boulder county, and though the flu still ravaged through the country, it had slowed in Colorado to the point where University and state officials lifted the quarantine. Classes resumed on Nov. 11, the date of the armistice signing for World War I.
Over the course of the epidemic in Boulder and the five week University closure, there were 1,289 cases of the virus in Boulder county, including 64 deaths. Nineteen of the deaths were associated with the University directly, with 18 being SATC members and one being a professor. At the time, the population of Boulder County was only 15,387.
“The deceased were placed in a makeshift morgue in the steam tunnel running between Woodbury and Macky Auditorium,” Dombrowski noted.
There were fewer technological and scientific advancements that allowed for fast solutions to the virus in the time of the 1918 Flu. In fact, it was not well known that the flu was caused by a spreading virus. In contrast, the common belief was that the 1918 Flu was caused by a bacteria. Some scientists went so far as to create a vaccine meant to stop a bacteria, which was entirely useless to the cause.
Times have surely changed since the 1918 Flu epidemic, and scientific advancements have allowed for a vaccine to be made via mRNA to provide a level of protection against the Coronavirus that has taken over the world today. Despite these advancements, there are still many similarities between the 1918 Flu epidemic and the Coronavirus pandemic.
The first positive case of COVID-19 on campus was reported on Mar. 12, 2020, and only four days later the University began holding courses online. 66% of the on-campus student population packed up their belongings and moved home for the remainder of the semester during the hectic week after the decision to move online.
While the University remained closed for only five weeks during the 1918 Flu epidemic, the Coronavirus pandemic created an empty campus for the two months remaining of the spring semester, along with the entire summer. It was only with the Fall 2020 semester that students were allowed back on campus, and even then most classes were either hybrid or completely online.
Though the buildings on campus were not used as temporary hospitals in response to COVID-19, they did serve as isolation dorms. Several rooms were set aside at the beginning of the semester in dorms such as Williams Village East and Williams Village North; partway through the semester, Darley North and the Bear Creek apartments were transitioned into isolation spaces, as well.
The peak of the pandemic on campus was on Sept. 17, 2020, when there were 130 new positive cases reported. To date, Boulder County has recorded 29,427 cases with 271 deaths, though it is unknown how many of these cases are affiliated with the University.
Luckily, the scientific community worked tirelessly to create a vaccine that has aided in protection against the virus, something that those in 1918 were unable to achieve.
The campus has seen two deadly viruses take place since its founding. 102 years later, the University and its history-soaked buildings still stand to see another day and hold classes once again.
Photo Courtesy Carnegie Library for Local History, Museum of Boulder Collection